Pros
In many companies, you are just a number. Even extraordinary work gets overlooked. I have found that to be just the OPPOSITE with Citizant. In my 4 year tenure, I have worked on many contracts with many extraordinary individuals, but none as fun, dedicated, and motivating as our CEO, Alba Alemán. I have witnessed first-hand her tireless dedication and incredible work ethic, and it is one of the main reasons I enjoy working here, as I know she strives to make Citizant a success. I have been given opportunity at Citizant to perform, and I have worked hard to take advantage of that. I truly believe that my hard work has been greatly appreciated by this company. While I was hired for two specific contracts that have since ended, Citizant recognized my hard work and dedication and have kept me on board, finding many other areas and contracts for me to work on. Those of you who have done IT contracting for a while know that is not always the case (I sure do) and I find that level of respect and loyalty to their trusted employees to be an honorable trait for an IT contractor to possess. I also appreciate the support they have shown, not just me, but my family as well. Again, a rare and honorable trait that I do not overlook. On top of all that, I have found the work since I have been here to be challenging and at the forefront in helping to shape the new landscape of IT work in supporting the Federal Government and it's needs. Citizant encourages their employees to be proactive; to provide not only analysis, but solutions. I am proud to be a "Citizant" and look forward to continuing to help make Citizant one of the best IT contractor's in NoVA.
Cons
The last two years has seen a bit of employee turnover. This has caused some difficulty in leadership, and some contracts struggled because of it. In my opinion, a majority of the problems were caused by a few factors. 1. Some of the contracts were difficult to staff, meaning that considerable time was spent identifying qualified candidates to fill jobs. At the end of the day, there were some successes to be sure, but some failures as well. In the case of several hirings, the individuals were just not capable of filling the role they were hired for. They have thinned this "herd" in the last year, which probably accounts for a lot of the negative reviews posted here, but I sure you many of those released fell into this category, and Citizant is better off without them, in my opinion. While ineffective employees are often a problem across all of the IT industry, the real problem here was that instead of being replaced, they were allowed to sit in these positions without adequate appraisals of their work performance for far too long. This was a direct result of the next factor... 2. Leadership is a difficult trait to master. Down in the trenches of IT projects, the Project Manager is responsible for leading their team to achieve the objective. While I have seen some great PMs here at Citizant, I have seen some bad ones also. PM problems I witnessed first hand included failure to drive best practices, failure to adequately identify personnel issues and address them, inadequate communication skills, and failure to drive project schedule (sometimes, failure to HAVE a project schedule). Citizant does appear to learn from their mistakes, and has let those PMs go. I am hopefull moving forward, as they seem to be exhibiting more diligence in their PM leadership selections. 3. Communications is also a hard trait to master. I have seen problems in the past here at Citizant. Communications with their project teams, especially the remote teams, needs to improve. It's not to say their remote teams aren't doing a great job, but in what I have seen, they feel isolated from the company. Oftentimes they seem to feel more like government employees and not Citizant employees. This is challenging, and should be addressed. I have also seen struggle with stakeholder communications as well. It's not enough to have formal meetings. A personal touch is sometimes needed throughout a project, especially with more difficult clients, to understand their concerns, connect with their needs, and manage expectations. While it's not to say this didn't occur to some degree, it can be improved.